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Sunday, 26 July 2009

One Unique Signal - Villains To A Man EP

The new ep from Brentford's One Unique Signal, Villains To A Man, is available to download free from the band themselves now.

In 2003 they released their first ep Lowry, enhanced it's skeletal angular style with background textures on the 2007 album Tribe, Castle & Nation through Genepool Records which made my top 10 of the year. In 2008 they played us one of our greatest NFR shows when we put on a release party for their previous self-release Dismemberment ep which is still available to download free through them as well. That release and the live show developed the layers of guitar tones, noise washes and textures into a visceral experience that has been pushed further out into cosmic psych territory with this new release.

Recorded at the Bunker studios in Middlesex by Dan from Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom, Villains To A Man sounds to us more like Finnish psychedelic bands like Tivol or Circle - locking down a gritty central riff with all kinds of sounds freaking out around it, guitar lines emerging out from it spinning off from the central themes gradually moving focus of the track and intensifying it.

Across these three tracks the effect becomes increasingly hypnotic: The opening Plasticism moves at a heady tempo with the drum pulse backing it's pointed bass riff for a good 5 minutes before descending into a pounding wah freakout for the final run in. Jaded is a slower, more menacing piece, it's bass riff seeming to bounce itself off the walls of noise surrounding it, the whole track keeping a steely pace whilst ramping up the pressure until Byron's vocal come in low, reverbed and really scary to finish it off. Final track Villains starts with a rotating shimmer before dropping straight onto an almost bluesy riff that finds it sweet spot in within the first 8 bars then its an epic sensory assault from thereout, the band layering on sheets and sheets of rhythmic guitars while the core riff keeps smashing itself onwards with a sense of increasing velocity before the addition of a brass coda comes in punctuating and peaking it like the horns in Wooden Shjips' Sol '07. After almost 20 minutes the monolith blows itself out and all is still once more.

Did we make that sounds essential enough for you?

As well as the download you can contact the band for hard copies or pick one up at their shows. They come in hand made orange art sleeve with a separate card inlay containing info.